Oxford University. His first novel, Divorcing Jack, won the

Betty Trask Prize in 1994.

Praise for Divorcing Jack

'A joy from start to finish... Witty, fast-paced and throbbing

with menace, Divorcing Jack reads like The Thirty-Nine Steps

rewritten for the '90s by Roddy Doyle'

Time Out

'As sharp as a pint of snakebite... Richly paranoid and very

funny, and it manages to say more about the Troubles in 280

vivid pages than reams of earnest reportage ever could'

Sunday Times

'As fine a black comedy thriller as has emerged from this side

of the Atlantic in years' GQ

Praise for Cycle of Violence

Fast-paced, very black and very funny: Roddy Doyle meets

Carl Hiaasen'

Independent on Sunday

'Terrific, mordant wit and a fine sense of the ridiculous . . .

the writing is great' Evening Standard

'Bateman's is the ultimate word on the insanity of the Troubles:

no one has done it better' Scotland on Sunday